affiliate scheme - pros and cons?

[The Invader]

First a bit of background as it will help you determine which answers to my questions will be most appropriate to my situation...

I will be starting a solo girl/girl-girl only adult site, but for the time being I will be running it myself in my spare time i.e. outside of my work hours and other essential commitments. Initially it will only be photo content (all shot by myself as an amateur) and likely restricted to 2 photo set updates per week. As such I will initially only be offering very low membership payment rates and a lot of free 'tease' content.

My hope is that I can gradually build up a quality user community, and the main reason I think I have a chance of some success is down to the strength of the domain name I have for the site. If it goes on to generate enough income I'd then like to progress to video content also, and would also be very interested in other parties getting involved to take the site forward.

I am using CCBill and am pondering whether to also set up a CCBill Affiliate account. So now (finally!) are my questions:

1) Should I set up an affiliate scheme for site launch or is it better to first build up a community and some traffic via SEO methods and mutual links?

2) Given that I am initially a 'one man band', with limited time to spend managing the site, am I putting myself at risk of not being able to manage affiliate payments and issues properly?

3) Any other pros and cons in offering an Affiliate scheme that you may wish to offer? (in the context of my own situation)


Thanks

[Welshmorph]

Affiliates are a must. CCBill will take care of payments, so you don't have to worry about that.
Link exchanges are pretty worthless, and if you have a links page outside of the members area good affiliates won't promote you as it will be a traffic leak.

You need to keep making fresh content available for your affiliates though or be willing to give out promo passes so they can make their own. No point having an affiliate scheme and just putting up a banner.

Have the affiliate scheme ready to go with the launch of the site.

Morph.

[The Invader]

Many thanks for the very quick response

When I got a graphic designer to do my site logos, I also got him to create loads of banner size image content, so I won't just have a single banner.

But I assume you are also referring to making full sample photo images available as affiliate content?

If so, I can do that too, as I will have a Blog section of the site which will always be updated with sample images from every photo set published in the gallery alongside associated blurb from myself about the shoot and the model, so it shouldn't be much extra effort for me to also make some of these sample images available in my affiliate account.

From the shoots I have done over the past few years, I believe I have enough content to last about 18 months, provided I stick to about 2 updates per week. I am in no doubt that it's a David taking on Goliath scenario, hence why I am not going to risk starting off with something that could very quickly become unmanageable/unsustainable.

cheers

[Welshmorph]

Ideally you would be able to make galleries available containing about 12 to 16 sample pics from a set for affiliates to use. Or have a zip of around 20 pics from a set available so they can make their own galleries.

The galleries I make myself and submit as an affiliate contains 16 pics, so if I go to a site that has less than 16 pics available I normaly don't bother promoting them other than a link on my blogs as my gallery template is for 16 pics.
That's why it's good when sites give out a promo pass to affiliates as you have no probs then and can make the gallery to suit yourself.
If you limit giving out passes to affiliates who can prove they make and submit galleries, then you should be able to avoid people joining as an affiliate in the hopes of getting a pass just to get inside and see the content for free.

Any questions, help you need, just give me a shout at morph@morphettes.com

Morph.

[Arsewithclass]

I am not going to give a large essay as there is no need.

The only con to an affiliate program is having a leakfree tour. Of which most affiliates would rather no links on the index page tours or any other page that is visable the surfer.

The rest is pro active. Earn some serious bucks. Look after your affiliates.

The next question should be what to offer affiliates. Everything from banners & galleries to flv files for embedding on their pages & tubes.

Good luck.